The present system and device relate generally to an apparatus and method for non-deleteriously accelerating the aging of wine and/or spirits. In earlier days, wine making was practiced in very low volume by a few masters who handed the craft from generation to generation. Recently, however, the wine business has burgeoned into a multimillion dollar industry which stretches around the world. New vineyards, such as Napa Valley and Australia, have joined the traditional ranks of those in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, and the like. Even though the demand for this commodity has increased multifold, the process by which the wine is made has remained pretty much the same. Thus, wineries have been forced to increase such things as vat volume, aging capacity, and the like. A limiting factor in further increasing production is the aging time.
In the making of many wines and spirits it is usual to age the wine or spirits in, for example, wooden barrels. “Barrel aging” is a centuries-old practice to improve the characteristics, such as taste and mellowness of wine. Certain aging techniques are used to impart a flavor and “soften” the wine. Usually, for quality wines, the barrels are made of oak. In recent years, synthetic barrels made of materials having limited porosity have been used and oak wood chips added for flavor. The drawback of barrel aging is the time that it takes to naturally age the fermented beverage.
The aging process, although complex, is thought to involve oxygen induced chemical reactions, including polymerization of short chain phenols. Thus, it is known that the infusion of oxygen through the barrel or container into the wine or spirits is important in the aging process. After the initial fermentation, present understanding suggests that the aging process improves the wine by polymerization of these phenols with the involvement of oxygen. During this barrel ageing process, water and alcohol are thought to diffuse out through the semi-permeable walls of the barrel and oxygen from the atmosphere diffuses in. The chemical reaction occurs in a region near the interface of the inner barrel wall and the wine called the Reaction Region. As a result, a concentration gradient of the products builds near the barrel wall known as the Reaction Barrier. The rate of reaction (ageing) is thought to be dependent on the concentration of the reactants at the Reaction Region and the removal of the products which form the Reaction Barrier. When the Reaction Barrier is allowed to create a boundary, it inhibits fresh wine from reaching the Reaction Region and the aging reaction is slowed. The replenishing of fresh wine through the Reaction Barrier layer has traditionally been accomplished only by diffusion or natural convection within the barrel.
The usual practice for barrel ageing is to leave the barrels in racks undisturbed except for periodic sampling or topping off as evaporation of the water and alcohol depletes the liquid. In some wineries the barrels are turned to provide some agitation or mixing of the body of the wine. This has little effect on the convection boundary layer, but favorably affects the diffusion profiles of the reactants in the ageing process. Because the effect on ageing rate is small and the effort is large, the turning of barrels is not done by the majority of winemakers.
While exposure to oxygen during racking and ageing in the barrel can be of benefit to the wine, excess oxygen can be deleterious and “sour” the wine. Thus, wines that are “corked” or have “turned” are examples of excess oxidation. Once a bottle of wine has been opened for some time, or if oxygen has seeped past a faulty cork, the oxidized wine will taste “off” and eventually sour. Therefore, accelerating aging by introduction of oxygen has to be controlled to prevent deleterious excessive oxidation.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a system and method for increasing the aging process without deleteriously affecting the wine. In my prior application, of which this is a continuation-in-part, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,966,250, an apparatus and method were disclosed, wherein a plurality of spaced hollow semi-permeable tubes which provide an interface wall between the wine or spirits and the atmosphere were placed in the barrel such that oxygen could infuse through the walls of the tube into the wine or spirits to enhance aging.